The Next Supreme Court Justice: Andrew Gelman's take

Andrew Gelman, at Columbia University, clearly enjoys his work. Anyone who publishes this must: “My quick take on the Souter replacement is that … Obama could nominate Pee Wee Herman to the Supreme Court and get him confirmed. But I’m no expert on this…” Very funny. I wonder what he’s like in person. He posted a thorough and enlightening review of the possibilities for the next Supreme Court justice, based on current (and recently departed) judges: http://www.

One nation, seven sins [Las Vegas Sun]

For a fascinating portrait of how the 7 deadly sins have materialized in the US, take a look at One nation, seven sins - Las Vegas Sun. It maps, in impressive detail, how those infamous markers of decadence have struck our country, putting an objective measurement to those habitually non-quantitative metrics. An effective piece of data visualization, because it tells a dire tale. The most interesting aspect of this article, however, is that it was published by a secular newspaper, completely unrelated to any religion or denomination.

Zen Elements Blog | Create an Origami Logo

Zen Elements Blog | Create an Origami Logo shows how to create a nifty folded-paper logo, complete with drop-shadows, subtle layer effects, and a clean design. Fun stuff!

Allegra's Studio: Wedding photographs

I’m trying to learn how to take good wedding photographs, since an engaged couple (friends of mine) asked me to take the pictures for their upcoming wedding. In looking around the web, I’ve found a few photographers who take nice, clean, but emotive pictures. Allegra’s Studio has a beautiful gallery of wedding photographs, where the subjects are glowing, the pictures are crisp, but the picture invites you in. It’s a lot of fun looking around at how others take pictures.

Time-lapse photography: The wolf loves pork -- 1300 photographs telling a story...

In 3 minutes and 55 seconds, Takeuchi Taijin tells a funny tale of a wolf and a pig. The photographs weave around the apartment, room by room, up and down walls, over the floor, using the kitchen as a pool, the wall as an elevator, and making amazing use of 3D space to engage the viewer. What a fun show. Enjoy! “A Wolf Loves Pork”

Custom Dress Shirts from ShirtsMyWay.com

Unfortunately, I haven’t yet seen any shirts from ShirtsMyWay.com, but the flexibility and myriad options (7 trillion, they say) is truly impressive. They’re running a 3-for-2 special through 4/22, so I think I might give them a go. Most of their shirts are in the $65-$75 range. Brooks Brothers charges much more for a similar service, so I’m excited by the possibility that this site provides similar features at a much smaller price tag.

Flying Lizards win at Long Beach!

Another first place finish for the Flying Lizards #45 911 GT3 RSR! Great show. The #44 did an amazing job pulling up from the pack finishing 5th. Congratulations! Keep up the great work! The cars, drivers, and teams are all doing a fantasitc job. With the addition of Corvette and Jaguar to the GT2 category, plus a few more 911-based teams in 2010, the competition will get even more fierce. Should be even more exciting to watch.

Google's appengine supports Java now!

Google just rolled out Java support for their AppEngine, which previously only supported Python. This is great news since it opens the whole AppEngine to Java programmers (or at least those of us who know Java better than Python;). They say it’s an early release, but it’s a step in the right direction! I’ve downloaded the Eclipse plugin, installed it, and generated both an GWT and plain JSP for my site.

Ergonomic Workspace Planner, Workstation Installation Tool

Off and on, I’ve been curious how my workspace stacks up in the ergonomics area. When I found a pointer to the Ergonomic Workspace Planner, Workstation Installation Tool, the time to check it out in earnest had come. Turns out my dimensions are very close to the recommended distances. Phew. Glad it worked out.

Flying Lizards take top GT2 spot at St. Petersburg

Congratulations to the Flying Lizard team! The #45 Porsche 911 GT2, driven by Patrick Long and Jörg Bergmeister, take the top spot at today’s ALMS race at St. Petersburg. The Flying Lizard team was able to keep the car in the running, while many other participants fell out due to various technical difficulties. P.S. Good to see BMW do so well, especially after the challenges they experienced at Sebring a few weeks ago.